Curtin Primary School Newsletter

Dear Curtin families,

Welcome to Term 3! It is wonderful to see students back at school energised and ready to learn. We hope you enjoyed some family time during the break and look forward to an exciting term of learning and community events. We congratulate Kindergarten students on their 100th day of school today!!! Congratulations also to their families. 100 days of uniforms and lunchboxes is a lot of work.

Cultural Integrity at Curtin

Creating an environment of cultural integrity at Curtin is a priority to all staff at Curtin. We have a committee of staff led by Karen Kennedy who are leading our work in ensuring our learning programs and school events provide students with opportunities to explore the diversity of their world and possess a deep understanding of Australia, particularly our histories cultures.

Students at Curtin represent 47 countries around the world, and our common experience is that we meet each day on the lands of the Ngunnawal people. In paying respect to this, we aim to teach the histories, cultures and strength of contemporary Aboriginal Australia through the authentic learning program in the classroom.  To support this we are working to build connections with the Ngunnawal community and Canberra Aboriginal community to create more visible presence of Aboriginal cultures in our school.

Next Friday, 2 August, students will attend a gathering to recognise and celebrate NAIDOC week. Local educator, Duncan Smith will be providing immersion in some cultural practices and students will be presenting the Acknowledgments of Country created in preparation for NAIDOC week. 

Performing Arts Experience

In partnership with the P&C, Curtin is hosting performing arts specialist, Mr Tim, during this term. Mr Tim has worked in the school twice previously in 2015 and 2017. Many of you will have been involved in those performances. Mr Tim will work with students over 4 days to prepare and stage a concert that families will be able to attend.

Junior school classes will hold their performing arts week in week 4 (12-16 August, with the performance on the evening of Thursday 15 August).

Senior school classes will hold their performing arts week in week 5 (19-23 August, with the performance on the evening of Thursday 22 August).

This project provides all students with a positive experience of performing for an audience and the short time period means that we are able to maintain classroom learning throughout the term. The timing also allows us to link classroom and performance experiences with the 2019 Book Week and the theme, Reading is my Superpower.

Book Week

To culminate this, on Monday 26 August, we invite all students to dress up as a favourite book character for the day and participate in a small class parade at lines. As a school that is mindful of sustainability, we encourage families now to think about how you might design a costume with materials around your home, or through reusable items. Costumes should be inspired by books, characters and the ‘super powers’ related to reading. Please avoid purchasing new costumes that won’t be reused, or dressing up as television characters. Book Week is a chance to emphasise the love of reading and literature, and want all students to come away with ideas of some books to explore.

On Monday 26 August, parents and carers are welcome to attend school from 9.00 to see classes share costumes with the junior or senior school at lines.

Fence Update

At the beginning of this year, the process of installing a fence around the perimeter of the school commenced with information and consultation. We have been advised that installation will commence some time in this term. After consideration of submissions, the proposed fence is the standard Education Directorate style, which is a 2.1 metre tall black bar fence, with flattened points on top. This is the design that, in other schools, has proven most effective, and the safest if it is climbed. Weekend access to the grounds will be possible and can be negotiated with the community once the fence is installed. The plan for the fence line is available for viewing at the front office.

While the decision to install a fence inspired a range of emotions through the community, now a decision has been made, we are excited about the possibilities to provide more flexible play for individuals, and developing the play environment and gardens in the school. We thank our P&C for their work to ensure the updates to the groups will also include the super slides and congratulate those community members who worked tirelessly to achieve their fundraising goal.

We look forward to sharing our enhanced school environment into the future.

Yours in learning,

Merryn 

Events may be viewed and added to your personal calendar on the Skoolbag app

Notes may be downloaded from links found below

On Friday, 2nd August, members of the Curtin Primary School community are invited to come along to our special gathering to commemorate NAIDOC Week. Whilst this week occurred during the school holidays, we would still like to recognise this important event.

Time - 2-3pm

Venue - The school hall

We will be having a special performance from Wiradjuri Echoes and our whole school ‘Acknowledgement to Country’ will be read for the first time.

We hope to see you there.

School Banking is a fun, interactive and engaging way for young Australians to learn about money and develop good savings habits. Children who deposit money into their Youthsaver account through School Banking earn Dollarmites tokens, which they can save up and redeem for exciting rewards.

The exciting new Term 3 Polar Savers rewards for Term 3, 2019 are now available, while stocks last!

School Banking is also a great fundraiser for our school. Our school receives a Regular Savers Contribution of $5 for every 10 deposits processed per student as well as an Annual Contribution which is based on the number of students who made at least one School Banking deposit in the prior year.

All you need to get involved in the School Banking program is a Commonwealth Bank Youthsaver account. You can open an account for your child in one of two ways: 

1. Online

Visit commbank.com.au/schoolbanking and click on the link to open a Youthsaver account.

2. In branch

Visit a Commonwealth Bank branch with identification for yourself and your child, like a driver’s licence and birth certificate.

If your child has an existing Commonwealth Bank Youthsaver account they can start banking straight away. They just need to bring their deposit in every week on School Banking day using their Dollarmites deposit wallet.

School Banking day is Wednesday. Each week children send their bank books in with the canteen orders basket. They will be processed and returned to the child’s classroom each week.

If you would like to know more about School Banking, contact our school banking coordinator, Ali on 0403 685 367 or alicebourke@yahoo.com. 

Unfortunately, due to personal circumstances, Ali will need to finish the role of School Banking Coordinator. In order for the program to continue, another volunteer is needed.

There are no special skills needed.

Once a week, you simply:

·         pick up the school banking books from the canteen,

·         process the deposits at school,

·         return the bank books to the canteen

·         drop the deposits bag at any Commonwealth Bank Quick Bag shoot.

The banking is done on the school computers, and can be done during the school day, or at drop-off or pick-up.

If you think you could help fill this role, please email Ali on alicebourke@yahoo.com.au.

After receiving the results from our Family partnerships survey the Be You team have been considering this information and working to identify ways we can improve family and school partnerships here at Curtin Primary.

The survey results identified:

·       That overall, families feel that that our school community is a partner in supporting their children’s wellbeing.

·       That families would like to be more involved in their children’s learning.

·       That all members of our school community would like clearer guidelines around communication.

·       That Skoolbag has improved and simplified communications.

·       That many families would like opportunities to feel more connected to our whole school community.

This information led to the development of 4 main areas for improvement and the creation of goals for each area. These are:

1.    FAMILY INVOLVEMENT

·       Provide opportunities for families to connect with their children’s learning and regularly inform parents on ways to do so.

·       Provide more varied ways for families to connect with learning and the school community.

2.    COMMUNICATION

·       Development of standard guidelines for communication across the school.

·       Eventual development of a more standard homework policy.

3.    SCHOOL AND PARENT COMMUNITY

·       Explore ways to foster family connections across the school.

4.    WELL BEING INFORMATION

·       Creation of a dedicated Be You space for families to access specific wellbeing information.

·       Providing regular information about common wellbeing topics through the newsletter each week.

Keep an eye out for improvements and changes that occur as we implement these goals. These goals will be progressing throughout term 3 and 4 and are planned to be in full effect in 2020.

The Be You team will keep you updated as we work through through our action plan.

If you would like a copy of the formal action plan please email Rachel Tibballs Rachel.Tibballs@ed.act.edu.au or Katie Simone Kathryn.Simone@ed.act.edu.au

As we work on these improvements, we will invite you to share your thoughts and feedback at various stages. Also, please feel free to provide feedback at any time. We greatly appreciate your participation and input. 

Mrs Kemp, our school piano teacher, would like to congratulate the following students on their fabulous piano exam results:

Thea L - Violin, Grade 1 - Distinction

Well done! 

The uniform shop is located opposite the canteen and is open from 8.30am until 9.30am each Wednesday. 

McCains have advised us that there is an Australian-wide shortage of their pizzas. At the canteen has limited stock. We will be restocking as soon as they become available. Thanks, Lizzy.

The canteen is open from 8.45am until 1.45pm. If you have any canteen queries, Lizzy can be contacted on 6142 2581 during these hours.